Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith: The privacy week that was

In a Saturday blog post, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith offered his perspective on a unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Riley v. California.

The court ruled in the case that warrantless searches under an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement cannot extend to cell phones, and that authorities must secure a warrant from a court to search such a device.

“More than in any other recent decision, the Supreme Court this week advanced privacy in a digital era characterized by ubiquitous computing,” wrote Smith, who is also executive vice president of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft.